Risk Love
by WritingAboutEdward
Summary: Why do you love her? someone asked. Simple, because she got under my skin and refused to leave. A simple love story of a farm-girl and her bag-thief and the lovely chaos that is family. M for eventual lemons. AH/AU. Daily Updates.
1. Prologue

**Disclaimer: **I do own Twilight, but only in my wildest fantasies. Mrs. Meyer owns it in real life though.

**A/N:** This story is mostly humour and romance and I am having a lot of fun writing it. I will be updating daily so that should compensate the short chapters. English is my second language so please be kind enough to overlook the mistakes and concentrate more on the story. Since I will be updating daily, this story will be unbeta'd. Thank you, please read on.**  
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The huge campus building came into view and the knot in my stomach tightened with anxiety. I wish I had fought harder when Jasper had said we'll drive to Seattle. It was torture of the worst kind, being stuck with him in a car for two days when I knew I wouldn't be seeing him for the next four months. I could feel my lunch coming back up and I quickly cranked down the window to let some air in. I had never been as far as Seattle before. Hell, I'd never even left town limits except for maybe a few holidays here and there and no to say I was feeling a little like fish out of water would probably be understating things. As soon as we entered the big, bad city of Seattle, I knew I was never going to fit in. It was like being thrown into a whole new world for me.

I was a farm girl, my life revolved around lounging in fields, feeding chickens, rough-housing with the boys and climbing trees. I was from a place where everyone knew everyone else. Homemade pies and barbeque nights, neighbours who were friends and friends who were family, little joys that seemed somewhat lost in a city as big as this one: these were beloved parts of my home that I was dreading leaving behind.

The noises of the city intimidated me; the impersonal feel of the entire landscape gave me chills. I had never seen these many cars, or heard these many people for that matter. Suddenly the whole prospect of independence seemed overrated to me.

I knew I just had to say the words and I would be whisked away from this place, but deep down I recognized I was excited for this new chapter of my life. I couldn't wait for it to start. I just wished it didn't have to start this far away from my family.

People don't often understand my need to be close to them, or as close to them as I can manage. It was just the three of us really, my brother, uncle and me, functioning smoothly in our own dysfunctional way. Mom and Dad were out of the picture before I had even learnt the meaning of those words. An accident of some sort, I had yet to know the details.

My name? Isabella Swan, Bella to the world, Kiddo to family.

They say you can't miss what you've never had, truer words have not been spoken. I always get pity-looks from people when I tell them I'm an "orphan", but they needn't have worried. I was never in want for the warmth of a mother's hug or the protection of a father's touch. For me all that resided with my brother, Jasper Swan. He was my protector, my hero, my mother and my father, all rolled into one. Jazzy was the brother each girl wishes she had. Attentive to a fault, though a tad bit over-protective at times. The one thing he could not stand was to see me cry, he would move the mountains if he could for me.

My uncle, Dr. Carlisle Cullen, who became our sole guardian after our parent's sudden demise, was a force to be reckoned with too. On his way to becoming one of the world's greatest orthopedic surgeons, Uncle Carlisle left everything – his job, his status, his wife - to come and take care of us and the family estate my had father left behind. Some say he was foolish, too flippant, to give up everything for a bunch of kids and a piece of land, that anyway wouldn't be his as soon as said kids turned eighteen, but as far as I was concerned he was the smartest, most talented man on Earth. No one could compare to Uncle Carlisle, except for maybe Jasper.

And in a few short hours I'll be leaving them behind, ready to start a new life, at the University of Washington, a 1000 miles from home. While on one hand I couldn't be more excited if I tried, I was also feeling a bit lost on the other as I would be leaving behind my shelter for the better part of four years. I couldn't wait, though, to seek out my adventure. It could be something as simple as learning how to cook Ramon noodles so I didn't starve at nights, but it would be mine and something I would be proud of. And maybe, just maybe, I'd find the reason worth going through this ordeal along the way, too. I'll be keeping my fingers crossed just in case.

I could feel Jasper tensing up when we reached the gates of the University, his knuckles turning white as he gripped the steering wheel as if it was his life line, his face turning whiter. He noticed me watching, however, and fixed a smile on his face. It made him look like something had died under his nose.

I tried to suppress my sigh as he quietly opened my door for me and chanted the mantra that had gotten me through the months leading up to this point.

_College, freedom, now or never._

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**A/N: **As a warm-up, I will be updating another chapter today and then we'll go on to one chapter per day. Please leave a review.


	2. Alice

**Disclaimer:**Twilight is still mine only in my fantasies.

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"I have seen it." Alice began sinisterly. "The Brandon Eye never lies." I giggled at Alice's antics. She was the first person I'd called after my talk with Carlisle for she always made me feel better and I needed someone to do just that after the ultimatum Carlisle had given me. She claimed to have an "Inner Eye" that saw the future. Too bad it was not true.

"He'll say no."

"You won't know till you've tried Bella." Alice dropped all pretense (and that creepy baritone) of soothsaying and her sweet voice cut through the speaker with an impatient edge to it.

"But it will break his heart."

"Well, he needs to accept the fact that you're no longer six but rather a grown woman capable of making her own-"

"It's not that Ali. You know how he is. I think he'll more afraid I'll end up in a ditch somewhere."

"I know Bells." Alice sighed. I could almost picture her shaking her head sadly.

I sighed to, thinking back to the time when we'd played a practical joke on Jasper. He was too silent, too brooding for his age and I was too young, just six, to understand the reason behind said silence. I'd seen Jared Paul laugh when he found out his friends had hid his favorite teddy as a joke. I'd decided I would do anything to see Jasper laugh like that, and I'd concocted a plan which had seemed nothing short of brilliant to my six year old self.

What no one had anticipated was that when Alice burst into Jasper's room, bereft and wailing that I was nowhere to be found, he'd shut down so entirely that they'd have to hospitalize him. The sad thing was he didn't say one word to me after I sobbed and asked for his forgiveness, just hugged me to his chest, kissed my forehead and then refused to let me out of his sight for three days. He did shut out the bearer of the news though, my best friend and partner in crime, Alice Brandon.

Poor, sweet Alice, who was madly and deeply in love with him.

He did go to therapy on Carlisle's insistence, but till date he always flinched whenever we had to be apart for more than a few days. With time Carlisle managed to convince me that the incident was not my fault, rather a delayed reaction on Jasper's part on losing his parents at an age when he was old enough to understand, yet not cope, with the loss of a loved one. I even went to therapy with him once or twice, but I had been so young when the incident had occurred that I found I could not even remember their faces, let alone try to find an outlet to grieve over their loss.

"But pull up your big girl panties now Bella!" Reproached Alice, pulling me out of my reverie. "I know how long you've fantasized going off to college, learning the works of the Bard, maybe even becoming a writer yourself. Hell, you're the smartest person I know, and if there's anyone who should be going to college to show off their mad skills, it you! To hell if you're giving up your dreams only to appease Jasper."

"Wow, impressive Alice, and that was all in one breath too." I snickered, though I knew I was stalling. I heard her make a disparaging noise from the other end of the line.

"But you're right Alice." I sighed, "Carlisle knows, and he's told me in no uncertain terms that it's not right to keep it from him." I sighed once again. "I'm actually going to tell him. Tonight."

"Yay Bella! I knew you had it in you!" Alice squealed. I pictured her jumping around her room. She was truly a piece of work. With hair sticking out in every direction and an insane belief that she was psychic, she was shorter than a pixie but with more energy than an Energizer Bunny. We became friends instantly the day she threw a mud pie at me and I rubbed sand in hers in return. It was as if we were soul mates. We just got each other.

That was also the day Jasper helped her pick out all the sand from her hair because I told him to and she fell in love. She, however, was content in letting him think they were just friends. _I'll take him in whatever capacity I can have him,_ she always said. I just wished she would pull up her big girl panties too and tell Jasper how she really felt.

But right now, it was my turn, and I knew exactly how I was going to drop the bomb on him. Time to pull out the big guns.

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**A/N: **Any guesses what Bella's "big guns" are? Review and tell me.


	3. Telling Jasper

**Disclaimer: **Not mine anywhere else but in my wildest dreams.

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"Kiddo! That was the best lasagna I've had in ages." Jazz smiled at me, rubbing his stomach contently.

"Truly you have outdone yourself today Kid." Carlisle indulged me. I couldn't help the blush that warmed my cheeks. I never had been good at receiving compliments.

"If you keep this up, I don't think we'll need Maria's services any longer." Jasper grinned, a rarity. I was happy my cooking did that for him. I just wasn't sure how long the happy mood was going to last though.

"Oh no!" I shook my head in mock horror (or I didn't know if it was real), "I can't imagine doing all this work every day!" Not to mention Maria, our housekeeper, would have a coronary if I even suggested that I take over her cooking duties.

Carlisle tried to hide his smile. That man always had a hard time keeping a secret and, unfortunately, he knew exactly why I had gone to such lengths today even though I hated cooking almost as much as I hated that Beiber kid.

Food was, however, Jasper's one weakness. If you wanted anything from him, feed him. I had discovered this in third grade when I'd baked him a batch of chocolate-chip cookies. I thought he'd buy me the sun if he could. The way to a man's heart is through his stomach certainly stands true for him. Maybe I should tell Alice…hmm, not bad idea.

"Actually J, I need to talk to you about something." I said finally. Better get it over with before he lost his buzz.

Jasper arched an eyebrow, sensing something was off. Ah shit! There went the buzz.

"What is it Kiddo?"

"Well," I didn't know how to say it, "You know how I've always wanted to write, right?" I stumbled around for words.

He waved a hand, gesturing me to continue, his smile all but gone.

"Well, I – um – was looking into some courses, you know college and-" His expression stopped me cold.

"You want to go to college?" It was a statement, his voice cold and hard. Through my periphery, I saw Uncle leave the room.

"Yes, but Jasper just please listen me out! It's the University of Washington, mum and dad's alumni. It's a really, really great program. And it's not very far away!" The look he gave me had me backtracking. "Okay so maybe it's a little far, but they have the exact courses I was looking for and-and I'll be here every holiday." I could feel my voice rising with each world, my cheeks burning. I was baying at this point. "I promise I'll call every week, I'll even write to you if you want. Just please, I've thought a lot about this. I really want to do something with my life. I want to learn, I want to be independent and live life on my own terms. And maybe, I don't know why, but I figure this will be one way to be just a little closer to mum and dad."

It was the first time I'd said it out loud and I couldn't believe how true those words were. Maybe that was why I had been so insistent upon this being the only college I apply to. Maybe on some subconscious level I wanted to be part of my parent's lives in a way I never had the privilege to be.

I felt my voice soften as I put a hand on Jazz's knee, "I really, really want this Jazzy. I want a little piece of them that I've never got the chance to have. Please let me have this."

He just stared at the opposite wall, his face void of any emotion, as if I'd not just delivered the most powerful speech of my life. I grabbed the application form for the University of Washington and placed it beside him. I truly had nothing more to say.

"I won't go if you say no Jazz." I said softly as I knelt beside him, feeling the need to reassure him. Jazz would always be my first priority, "Just look through the courses once, before you do though, okay."

With my piece said, I got up, and left the room, for I could feel the waterworks start and I did not want him to feel obliged to do something he didn't want to do because of them. And it was then, when I turned around slightly to close the door behind me, I saw Jasper pick up the application and brochure to the only University I had applied for.

Now all I could do was hope.

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**A/N: **Please R and R.


	4. Acceptance

**Disclaimer: **Not mine.

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"Hey Seth," my chestnut brown colt neighed as I stroked his back, and turned his neck in my hands. Seth was a birthday gift from Jasper. Jane, the mare I had owned before him had to be laid down, and I was beside myself with her loss. I cried for two days in Jasper's arms and on the third day he brought me to the stables and handed over Seth's reins. I fell in love instantly.

That was my Jazzy, he could beat up three guys double his size for making fun of my braces, but was powerless against my tears. He called them his Kryptonite.

I suddenly felt overwhelmed, and the one thing I had been trying to avoid, happened. I cried. I cried for my freedom, I cried for putting Jasper in such a difficult position, I cried for making him choose, but most of all, I cried for the dreams that now lay shattered before me.

"Am I doing the right thing, Seth?" I asked him, settling down on the hay interspersed throughout the stables, staring at him as if my horse held the solution to all my problems. I snorted at the vision of Seth lecturing me about the ways of life, while I sat like a chastised child, but then my thoughts drifted off to Jasper who did do that and the laughter died just as instantly. "I feel so selfish for creating this mess. God knows I don't need to study to get by in life! I have enough in that stupid trust fund to ensure smooth sailing, but it's more about how much I want to. Maybe I'll suck; I'll fail in all the courses. Maybe that would be my punishment for putting Jazzy through this. Huh, I don't even think I want to go anymore." I hiccupped.

"Don't let the fear of failing keep you from playing the game Kid." I looked towards the left, startled as Carlisle appeared from the shadows. He sat down beside me and I instantly buried my face in his chest, not knowing till now how much I was craving the comfort of his protective arms. He was the closest thing to a father that I had, after all. Tucking a stray strand of hair behind my ear, he gently wiped my tears with the pads of his thumb. "And don't you ever waste these precious little pearls over something so trivial Bella." He said, referring to my tears which were now glinting on his thumb under the yellow light of the stables.

"I don't know what to do Uncle." I said, feeling anchorless. I did not imagine a college application would be source of such despair, maybe it was what it represented, but I was starting to wonder if it was even worth it. Jasper's earlier expression came to my mind and I could feel the waterworks coming.

"Oh Darling, life throws curveballs at you at every instant." Carlisle said, soothingly, "The secret is to just roll with the punches. If it were up to me, I would say you follow your dreams regardless of what Jasper says, but I know I can't even begin to fathom the bond between you two, so just do what feels right okay, my sweet. Remember, it's not the end of the world if it goes either ways. You'll always have your family. We love you regardless of whether you have a degree or not." I don't know if it was his tone or his sincerity, but his words made me feel much better. _Regardless, I would always have my family._ I chuckled.

"Ah, now hat's the sound I wake up every day for." Carlisle laughed, messing my hair, "Now help your uncle up my sweet, I'm afraid the old bones are giving up on me." I smacked his chest; Carlisle could outrun Jasper at their daily five mile run and not even break a breath. Old bones my ass.

Later that night, as I entered my room, I found my application form on my bed, filled out in Jasper's neat scrawl, with a sticky tape attached to it:

_You'll Call Every Day._

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_**A/N:**_Please R and R._  
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	5. Saying Goodbye is Never Easy

Six_ months later:_

"Promise me you'll be safe." Jasper's confidence in my safety had taken a serious hit when, while making our way to my dorm room, a scantily clad blonde, obviously inebriated, walked towards him, coped a feel and slipped him what suspiciously looked like a phone number. All this while he stood stunned, his eyes the size of saucers as I tried to rein in my laughter. I was never going to let him live that one down.

"You're way too pretty for your own good, Jazzy Boy." I laughed, ruffling his hair, "I anyway doubt that Blondie will be interested me, even though we do share the same DNA…"

"Be serious please." Jasper obviously did not find that comment funny. I could see a muscle twitching near his temple. He was obviously wondering what the boys of this college were like, if the girls were this forward.

I took his hands in mine and looked him straight in the eye. "Look Jazz, I know this is difficult. Hell, I'm sure I'll cry like a baby as soon as you're gone, but this is what I need to do. I need to somewhat make it on my own. Please don't worry about me. I'll be fine. You'll be only a day away anyways, and I know you'll visit as much as you can. Let's make this easier on ourselves okay." I tried to smile, but I was suddenly not feeling very up to it.

He squeezed my hand when he realized I was getting overwhelmed. Be strong, his eyes told me. "When did you grow up this fast, Kiddo? Feels like just yesterday I was teaching you to ride the bicycle and we were burying your first pet together. Remember Sir Prance-a-lot?" I snorted, if only to cover the nostalgic tears trying to burst through. I did remember him. An overactive hamster that thought Jasper's hair was a female of his own species. I used to conveniently forget to put him in his cage and Jasper would wake up with a headache and a hamster lying on top of his head. I used to call Jasper Lady Prance-a-lot.

I think he cried a little when that ball of fur passed.

"Yeah I do, and I also remember you going up to everyone you knew and asking them to come to our hamster's funeral dressed in their Sunday best." I laughed aloud but choked on it when he suddenly wrapped me in a hug.

"I'll miss you like crazy Kiddo." He whispered in my hair and I desperately tried not to let the tears fall.

"I'll miss you too Lady Prance-a-lot."

He groaned but just held me on tighter anyway. I think he was trying not to cry too.

We broke apart and I cleared my throat, trying to clear up the emotions clogging it.

"So let me just put the things in my space." I said gesturing to the area that was to be mine for the coming four years.

"This is what you're giving up your home for?" Jasper commented; his face contorted in a mask of mock disgust as he took in the small room with two beds, two desks and two armoires.

"Shut up." I smiled.

"Great retort, Bells."

I was thankful to him for keeping the tone of our farewell light and happy. It was hard already very hard saying goodbye to him, add loaded sentences into the mix and I would be a blubbering mess in no time. We joked around some more and soon it was time for the one thing I was dreading the most.

"So this is goodbye then I guess." He said, hugging me close once more, one foot already out the door.

"Yeah, don't forget to use Blondie's number."

He gave me his don't-mess-with-the-big-brother look but I didn't trust my voice so I didn't say anything more, just nodded along as he instructed me on how to incapacitate bearers of unwanted advances.

He left soon after, taking my home and shelter with him. I washed away the grime of the journey in the small bathroom with its broken tiles, arranged my clothes in the rickety wardrobe, dried my hair, cleaned the room a little and ate the pie Jasper had left for me. And it was then, after changing into my pajamas and brushing my teeth that I sank on the floor and cried.

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**A/N: **This is the last chapter featuring Jasper for some time. Next up is Edward! R and R :)


	6. Let the Games Begin

EPOV:

"Well, you can't deny I have a pretty face."

"Just because you have money and sex hair does not mean girls will fall over themselves to follow you wherever they go." Emmett, my beefy all-star friend stated.

"It is because of them that girls follow me everywhere, you idiot." I smirked, thinking about how Tanya literally did fall all over herself last night. Good times.

"Well, not every girl is that stupid though, bro. Look at my Rosie." He stated the last part proudly.

"Yeah, because everyone knows how much she values your brains."

Rosalie threw me a dirty glare. It was no secret how the two of them had met. Emmett's prized Hummer had died in the middle of the road and lucky for him, Rosalie, a mechanical engineering student at UW, was passing by. She screwed a few bolts in his engine and proceeded to do the same to him in a matter of a few hours on the very hood of that car.

"You know what I mean." Emmett laughed, flipping me off. "Fine, Ed, if you're that confident in your charms, then you must be up for some healthy betting." Emmett liked to bet on everything. Will the Lakers win, will Newton get dumped, when Newton will get dumped, will Mr. Banner break into tears while dissecting a frog, will the sky be blue…you get the picture.

"Bet you 100 bucks and my prized steel Nikes, you can't make that chick follow you." He pointed across the quad to a brown haired, mousy looking girl currently with her nose buried in a book. All I could make out was her hunched form, as her face was almost obscured by The Works of Shakespeare, but I could imagine thick classes and horse teeth behind the thick cover. Getting her to follow me? Piece of cake. Emmett didn't stand a chance. I was never usually this cocky but easy-money was always welcome.

"200 and bragging rights for a week." I said, my mind made up.

Emmett looked like he'd just won the lottery. "Alright Cullen, you'll get exactly five minutes to get her to the Drumheller Fountain. I'll be waiting for you there. And taking your autographed basketball if I win. Deal?"

I contemplated for a minute. That ball was one of my most prized collections.

"Deal." We'll cross that bridge when we come to it.

We shook on it and I mentally started planning my form of attack.

"Oh come on guys, this is not high school." Rosalie whined, trying to put a damper on the fun, as always.

Emmett gave me a look that said I'll handle it and draping his arm over her shoulders, whispered something in his ear. The look they shared made me want to puke my guts out in disgust and made up my mind that I did not want to know the words they had just shared.

Rosalie giggled as Emmett whispered some more, then fixed her gaze on me.

"Edward Anthony Cullen." She said menacingly, "You will go over to that sweet little girl and you will lose, or help me God."

I let out a loud laugh. Got to love friends like them. I would be sorry to disappoint Rose, she was one of my first friends at UW, but she'll have to learn the hard way that when Edward Cullen puts his mind to something, he just doesn't lose.

I again looked over to the bookworm sitting a few yards from us. This would be like taking candy from a kid.

"Okay Ed, your time starts now."

Let the games begin.

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**A/N: **Next up, the first time they meet...


	7. Begging

I was lost in the world of Shakespeare; the Bard just had a way of making me forget all my troubles. I'd just finished my chat with Jazzy, and was feeling rather lonely at the moment and the first thing I thought of doing was reading A Midsummer Night's Dream. I remember the day I enacted the entire play in front of my family. I could hardly remember the lines but Jasper hooted and whistled the entire time like a buffoon.

It had been two weeks since Jazzy's departure and had it not been for my roommate, one Angela Webber, I would no doubt have been wallowing in said loneliness in the confinement of my dorm room. She was the coolest chick I'd ever met, almost like a cross between Goth and Disney princess. With the personality of a trucker and the upbringing of a Sunday church girl, she was like a contradiction on legs.

Angela had arrived at the dorm when I had been lying face down on my bed and bawling my eyes out. She took one look at me and demanded I stop "crying like a teething baby" and help her with her bags. We became instant friends and in the days that followed we extensively toured the campus and the surrounding Seattle area. We toured the Guggenheim, the museums and the art galleries in the morning and checked out the pubs and clubs in the evenings. I was very careful to gloss over our stints at the local seedy bars when I talked to Jasper every night of course. He seemed to be coping well with me not being there, though he did miss my cooking (I had to laugh at that one).

I also found time to call Alice once in a while. She was going to the community college near home to take a few vocational courses and doing a correspondence course with a very renowned designer all the way in New York. He firmly believed Alice was the next big thing in the fashion business and I couldn't have agreed more. I did feel envious of her sometimes. She was living her dream, interning for a big-wig fashion designer from the comfort of her home while I lived a 1000 miles away. I also missed her a lot, terribly so.

Today was exceptionally bad. Angela, my only friend on campus so far, had gone to visit her sister and brother-in-law in Port Angeles and would be staying over there for the weekend to help them take care of the twins they had just given birth to. Though she had invited me to tag along, I did not want to impose on what was obviously going to be a very personal affair.

So here I was, on a rare sunny afternoon, losing all my worries and problems while immersing myself in old colloquial English when suddenly I felt someone standing over me, blocking out the sun.

"Get that sweet face of yours out of that book and let me have a look at it, sugar." The voice of a man drawled out in a horrible Southern accent. I snorted but didn't look up. "Go, fuck yourself." I said simply, my eyes scanning the page for the line I'd lost when he'd come over.

He laughed, obviously surprised. "Come on sugar, it's just a walk." he said, again in that weird voice, and it sounded kind of pleasant, he was now annoying me. I decided to give him a third degree and looked up.

Holy shit, this man was gorgeous! I had never seen another one like him. He looked like sex on sticks. _Sex on sticks? _I had to stop hanging out with Angela. I could see a well-built body, covered by a shirt that stretched and bunched in just the right places, strange colored, almost copper-ish hair in the most delicious disarray and the deepest shade of apple green eyes, that looked mildly taken aback. His face was so pretty yet so masculine, I couldn't pull my eyes away. And that jaw could probably cut glass. Were those violins I was hearing? Le sigh.

"Didn't expect you to be this pretty, brown eyes." He remarked. The orchestra in my head stopped and I narrowed my eyes at him.

"Excuse me?"

"I, uh, I mean, you're so pretty, wanna go for a walk." He was clamoring for words, turning a deep shade of red. His cover-up was so hilarious, I burst into giggles.

"Sorry, _sugar_," I giggled some more at his atrocious nickname, "but I'm not interested." He was obviously dejected at my rejection. I almost felt sorry for him but then I saw him astutely glance at his watch. Strange.

"Oh come on, please?" he all but begged and the warning bells started ringing in my ears. What would a man, as handsome as he, want with a plain Jane like me?

"No," I said resolutely. Pretty or not, I was going nowhere on someone else's terms.

"Okay. You leave me with no choice then." He sighed dramatically, as if I was making it an ordeal for him. Then he crouched down and before I had the time to process, grabbed Louis and made a mad dash for it.

What. The. Fuck.

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**A/N: **Louis?


	8. Emmett's Bet

**A/N: **There won't be any more jumps in the POVs, I just felt a third person would be a better choice for this scene.

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Emmett POV:

I could almost taste victory on my tongue as I checked my watch for the seven hundredth time. Five minutes were almost up and Ed was nowhere to be seen. The bet had been genius. Edward was just not shutting up about banging that Tanya chick. That bitch was renowned in the male community of our college as almost unattainable. She did not put out for just anybody; God only knows why she did it for the man whose ego was bigger than the Hindenburg. It was going to be fun when he lost. Nothing was better than a sore loser, and Edward was just that.

Rosie and I were sitting on the steps of Guggenheim, overlooking the fountain. She looked especially fetching today in her white shirt and short skirt and I couldn't wait to take her home and do what I'd promised her I would, if Edward lost the bet (I would even if he didn't, but she didn't need to know that). She was busy toying with the fray of the hole in my jean, just above my knee and it was turning me on. I literally felt like the man of steel, pun totally intended.

"Why doesn't Edward hurry up and get here?" she looked doleful and completely fucking edible, looking at me from under half lidded eyes and licking her lips. She seemed to be as eager to get home as I was and that did nothing to help the situation downstairs.

"Just a couple of minutes more Rosie, then it'll be just you and I and loads and loads of maple syrup." She punched my arm as I laughed boisterously. I picked her up and put her in my lap so that she could feel for herself what she did to me. She blushed and buried her face in my chest.

I looked at my watch again, thirty seconds more and I'd be the proud owner of LeBron's very own autographed basketball. Poor Edward wouldn't know what's hit him.

Just as I bent down to give Rosie her victory kiss, the one I'd reserved for every match we won, I heard a frantic voice coming from the direction of the quad.

"Someone stop that man! He's a thief!" I instantly stood up, taking Rosie with me. The crowd parted and I couldn't stop the loud guffaw that bubbled up. Edward was running toward the fountain at break-neck speed, clutching a blue purse to his chest, with a brunette close behind.

That sonovabitch! I was not going to let him get away with this on a technicality, that's for sure. That crazy motherfucker had style though, I had to admit. It was the most entertaining bet I'd won so far. And that was including when my Aunt May danced on the bar table after having ten tequila shots, flashing my sister's entire bridal party. Okay, maybe omitting that one.

"Oh my God Emmett, what's he doing?" Rosie was also laughing as we saw him run to the fountain with the blue purse flying behind him. He came to a halt and looked around, probably trying to find us. Giving me thumbs up when he spotted us, he turned to face the brown-haired girl, who now looked confused. I took her form in. From where I was standing, I could see she was not at all like I had imagined she would be. She had creamy skin, which was flushed, brown, completely stunned eyes, nice rack and really long legs accentuated by a fine pair of jeans. Yeah, not at all what I'd imagined.

I saw Edward raise both his hands in front of him as a sign of surrender as she started pointing and speaking heatedly. We were too far away to hear anything and I briefly contemplated moving a little closer to where they were standing, just so that I could hear her. But then Edward pointed straight at me and the way the girl stared at me made up my mind to stay where I was for the safety of my balls. His hands were flying everywhere as he tried to justify himself and she crossed hers over her chest, glaring at him as she listened. He again pointed towards me and I felt first wringing his neck and then running for shelter, far away from the angry nymph who was now shooting daggers at me. Soon her attention was back to Edward who was now pleading. I saw him shove the bag in her face, maybe as a peace offering.

And then she smiled, taking the bag sweetly from his hands and fluttering her eyelashes at him. He looked as stunned as I felt at the sudden turn of event.

She then shocked me further and offered him her hand. I watched, incredulous and a little bit jealous that Edward would yet again get away with his douchebaggery because of his charms, when, suddenly mid-shake she smiled innocently and pushed him forcefully into the water.

He fell in with a loud splash and my mouth fell open with surprise. I loved this girl! She then proceeded to give him a little kitten wave, turned on her heels, and walked away, amidst a thunderous applause from an enraptured audience.

I laughed uncontrollably and, after the initial shock had worn down, joined in the applause wholeheartedly.

"I like her." Rose whispered in my ear, grinning at a shell-shocked, dripping wet Edward who was making his way towards us.

"So do I Rose. So do I."

The year just got infinitely more interesting.

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**A/N: **I would love some reviews, just so I know how it's going.


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